In order for wellness to be more than just a buzzword, employers need to take careful steps to adequately define what wellness means while promoting the concept as a partnership with employees that will engender an overall healthy environment. Employers should also expect to make a significant investment of both time and resources if they are to be successful. That was the prevailing message from a panel assembled for the North Bay Business Journal’s Health Care Conference, which discussed corporate wellness as a strategy in increasing employee productivity, reducing absenteeism and curbing ever-incresing health care costs, among other benefits.

SANTA ROSA — The Santa Rosa Community Health Centers last week celebrated the opening of the Brookwood Health Center, its newest location that will provide primary care and mental health services for mostly homeless and uninsured and underinsured residents.

Since the $2.5 million adaptive-reuse painstaking transformation a 120-year-old historic horse stable into a high-tech community center was completed in March, DeTurk Round Barn in west Santa Rosa has accommodated weddings and receptions, birthday parties, business and group meetings, workshops and special events almost once a week, and a number of holiday parties are lined up through the end of this year.

PETALUMA — When the Petaluma Health Center opened the doors to its brand new, 52,000-square-foot location this June, an immediate impact was felt by both staff and patients working in and getting treatment at the federally qualified health center.

SONOMA – When Sarah and Darius Anderson bought the Ramekins Culinary School in 2008 at 450 W. Spain St., they saw an opportunity to transform the facility into an elegant European-style learning center, event locale and inn.

Left with an decadelong anchor-tenant vacancy in nearly half of a 199,000-square-foot neighborhood shopping center in southwest Santa Rosa, Weingarten Realty Investors took the bold step toward dividing one space into five.

SANTA ROSA – New administrative and operations offices, a training center and seven maintenance shops are among new 2011 additions to the Santa Rosa Utilities Field Office located at 35 Stony Point Road and West College Avenue, across from the Finley Community Center.

ROSS – Construction officially wraps up today in the renovation of Ross School, a project that included elevating portions of the school by four feet to avoid flooding and the construction of a new “multipurpose room.”

The Trinchero family has been producing wine in Napa Valley since acquiring Sutter Home Winery in 1947, but they waited until just the past several years to find the right home for their luxury brand, Trinchero Napa Valley.

SANTA ROSA — With the largest solar powered rock quarry in the western United States, and the first all solar facility of its kind in the industry, the BoDean Company has taken the use of photovoltaic cells and sustainability to the next level at its Mark West quarry.

If you own a single-member limited liability company (“SMLLC”) and live in a community property state, recent developments now make it prudent for you to seriously consider adding at least one more member to your LLC

NORTH BAY — Santa Rosa-based First Community Bank loaned the greatest amount of dollars to small businesses in the North Bay through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 7(a) program in the 2011 fiscal year, jumping 10 places ahead to No. 1 and joining a wave of lending both locally and across the country.

Both the number of loans and the total value of loans facilitated through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 504 program decreased across the North Bay in fiscal year 2011, though lenders said levels reflected that some businesses are still expanding during the recessionary period.

Lenders are praising recent tweaks to the new U.S. Small Business Administration 504 refinance program, saying that the changes make more small businesses eligible while simplifying the process for institutions.